


all of your sorrow won't fit in my head

by MarbledOpalescence



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Character Study, F/M, i got emotional about these two, of a sort i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 04:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21404137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarbledOpalescence/pseuds/MarbledOpalescence
Summary: Love is born, love fades, and love blooms again.
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Hadestown)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	all of your sorrow won't fit in my head

It starts like this:

A man, standing outside the gate. His hat in his hands as he twists it nervously. A woman, watching from the window, waiting for him to come to the door. She presses a hand to her chest trying to slow her beating heart.

A man and a woman standing in a garden. She with flowers in her hair and his heart in her hands, he dusted with petals and with a wild hope unfurling in his chest. He takes her hand and she leans in, pressing her lips softly to his cheek. His heart leaps and when he looks at her she can see the terror and the hope in his eyes. She laughs then and catches his face in her hands and pulls him down into a kiss.

* * *

It goes like this:

Each year she goes up above and he promises to wait for her. Each year she kisses him goodbye and promises not to forget. Six months is a long time, though. Six months in the sun, so different from her home down below…

It gets harder for her to come back.

Six months is a long time too, to wait alone in the cold and the dark. He waits for her and counts the days until he can come and bring her back home with him, to their world down below. He treasures the flowers she leaves him with every year until they fade and he’s left without any color again.

It gets harder for him to wait.

He gets cold and she gets restless, and each year they seem to grow further apart. She throws herself into the sun each year, relying more and more on things she brings back to make it through the half year underground. He sees her drifting away and throws himself into finding ways to make her stay. She wants the sun? He’ll make it brighter than the light of day. She wants the warmth? He’ll make it warm, warm enough that she’d never be cold again. She wants color? He’ll paint the walls the same red color as the flowers she loves so much.

The wires, the electricity, drawing power however he can to make his world somewhere she’d want to stay. But she never sees. She never stays. So each year he comes as early as he can, collecting her so at least he won’t be lonely again. 

It doesn’t work.

* * *

It comes to this:

A man comes to him, his heart in his hands like he stood so long ago. His wife stands behind the man, imploring him to let the man go. He sees himself in that man, hopelessly and helplessly in love. His heart that hardened long ago starts to soften and he tries to turn away.

His wife catches him by the hand and looks at him with eyes clearer than they have been for a very long time and he feels pinned by her gaze, the way he was all those many years ago. He raises a shaking hand to touch her face gently and she turns into it, kissing his work hardened palm. He remembers a promise that they made, one that hasn’t been kept for a long time.

He turns to the man and gives him a chance, a chance to save himself and the woman he came to find. The man thanks him, giddy with excitement, and his wife touches his shoulder as the man runs to go. He looks at her and she recognizes that same hope and terror in his eyes. She laughs like she did last time, but it’s a softer laugh, one full of the weight of age but no less lovely for it. She pulls him in and he lets her, resting his hands on her hips as she pulls him into a dance.

* * *

It ends like this:

A new promise drawn from smiling lips and heavy hearts. They’ve been here before and will be again, but this time they know how to wait. She’ll go above but he knows she’ll come back. He stays behind but she knows he’ll still be waiting. Their paths may not parallel each other exactly any more, but both know that they will cross again.

She goes and he stays, but promises are made. And this time, promises are kept.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and kudos are much appreciated, and if you want to come by and say hi, I am as always [marbledopalescence](https://marbledopalescence.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!


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